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Algebra Difficulty 6.6 National olympiad Prove it Saudi Arabia

Given three numbers xx, yy, zz, and set x1=xyx_{1} = |x - y|, y1=yzy_{1} = |y - z|, z1=zxz_{1} = |z - x|. From x1x_{1}, y1y_{1}, z1z_{1}, form in the same fashion the numbers x2x_{2}, y2y_{2}, z2z_{2}, and so on. It is known that xn=xx_{n} = x, yn=yy_{n} = y, zn=zz_{n} = z for some nn. Find all possible values of (x,y,z)(x, y, z).

Solution

First, consider 3 sequences (xn)\left(x_{n}\right), (yn)\left(y_{n}\right), (zn)\left(z_{n}\right), n1n \geq 1 with
x1=xy,y1=yz,z1=zx and {xn+1=xnynyn+1=ynznzn+1=znxn x_{1} = |x - y|, \quad y_{1} = |y - z|, \quad z_{1} = |z - x| \text{ and } \left\{ \begin{array}{l} x_{n+1} = \left|x_{n} - y_{n}\right| \\ y_{n+1} = \left|y_{n} - z_{n}\right| \\ z_{n+1} = \left|z_{n} - x_{n}\right| \end{array} \right.
From this, it is easy to see that xnx_{n}, yny_{n}, zn0z_{n} \geq 0 for all nn.
Let wn=max{xn,yn,zn}w_{n} = \max \left\{x_{n}, y_{n}, z_{n}\right\}, n1n \geq 1. We have
wn+1=max{xn+1,yn+1,zn+1}=max{xnyn,ynzn,znxn}max{xn,yn,zn}=wn. \begin{aligned} w_{n+1} = \max \left\{x_{n+1}, y_{n+1}, z_{n+1}\right\} & = \max \left\{\left|x_{n} - y_{n}\right|, \left|y_{n} - z_{n}\right|, \left|z_{n} - x_{n}\right|\right\} \\ & \leq \max \left\{x_{n}, y_{n}, z_{n}\right\} = w_{n}. \end{aligned}
The equality occurs when there is at least one number among xnx_{n}, yny_{n}, znz_{n} equal to 00. Hence, the sequence (wn)(w_{n}) is non-increasing. Suppose that kk is a positive integer such that (xk,yk,zk)=(x,y,z)(x_{k}, y_{k}, z_{k}) = (x, y, z), then
w1w2wk=w1 which implies that w1=w2==wk. w_{1} \geq w_{2} \geq \ldots \geq w_{k} = w_{1} \text{ which implies that } w_{1} = w_{2} = \ldots = w_{k}.
On the other hand, for all i=1,ki = \overline{1, k}, there is at least one number among (xi,yi,zi)(x_{i}, y_{i}, z_{i}) equal to 00. Without loss of generality, we may assume that xyz=0x \geq y \geq z = 0 and we can see that x1=xyx_{1} = |x - y|, y1=yz=yy_{1} = |y - z| = y, z1=zx=xz_{1} = |z - x| = x so we have some cases:

1. If xy=0x=y|x - y| = 0 \Leftrightarrow x = y, we have the tuple (x,y,z)=(a,a,0)(x, y, z) = (a, a, 0) with a0a \geq 0. It is easy to check this tuple satisfies the given condition.

2. If y=0y = 0, to separate from the previous case, we consider x>0x > 0, we have the tuple (x,y,z)=(a,0,0)(x, y, z) = (a, 0, 0) with a>0a > 0. But x1=ax_{1} = a, y1=0y_{1} = 0, z1=az_{1} = a and from this, we cannot obtain (a,0,0)(a, 0, 0) anymore. Hence, this case does not satisfy the given condition.

3. If x=0x = 0, we have x=y=z=0x = y = z = 0 which was mentioned above.

Therefore, the tuples (x,y,z)=(a,a,0)(x, y, z) = (a, a, 0) and its permutations with a0a \geq 0 satisfy the given condition. \square

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